For many of us, Freddie Foxxx is the people’s champion who is still heavily slept on. When I first got through he was midway through an interview and I heard him say “…they’re not experimenting enough, they need to be more diverse…”. I assume he was talking about the current state of emcees, a topic he is always glad to discuss in interviews and on his records.

His latest targets are Kanye West, Ying Yang Twins, Rick Ross, Ludacris, and 50 Cent amongst others. I tried to think of questions that other people might not ask…

Introduce yourself:

Bumpy Knuckles: Bumpy Knuckles AKA Freddie Foxxx.

What new projects you got coming?

Bumpy Knuckles: I got a couple of new projects. I got a mix CD out now called the OG which is available as a free download (myspace). I re-released Crazy like a Foxxx.

What about the new LP?

Bumpy Knuckles: I’m still working on Amerikkkan Black Man. I had to make some changes, get back in the studio change it around. I just did a new album with KRS-1. KRS asked me to help out with the Stop the Violence project, so I got a couple of tracks on there.

Violence in hip-hop?

Bumpy Knuckles: The funny thing is there’s necessary violence and unnecessary violence. People speaking about violence on records… what resignates (sic) in the streets is what resignates in this country and countries abroad years before we was even here, so you know, I still don’t believe that if every rapper talked about peace and love in their music there wouldn’t still be violence in the streets. I don’t think people can charge hip-hop with the reason there’s so much violence in the world. Hip-hop wasn’t the reason that the United States attacked Iraq you know what I mean? There’s way more reasons for violence than hip-hop music. As far as I’m concerned, the people you should wanna hear say stop the violence are the violent people. My thing is, nobody cares if someone who only talks about peace, love and unity says stop the violence, it doesn’t matter cuz you ain’t violent anyway. You gotta rob banks to be a bank robber you know what I mean?

Do you enjoy violence?

Bumpy Knuckles: Ha ha ha. Ok, I’ll answer the question. I don’t enjoy violence. Violence is something that, if I have to be violent with someone it’s because I have to. I don’t wake up every morning thinking I’m gonna be violent this time round. Violence is something that no-one should enjoy. I’m a person that’s protective of my family, protective of my space and my close friends and stuff. If I can talk my way through a situation where I don’t have to hurt somebody I’d much rather do that. But if someone touches my square and they seem to be intolerable….

Women in hip-hop / female rappers?

Bumpy Knuckles: You need to listen to the beginning of industry shakedown. Never let somebody tell you that you can’t do it. At the end of the day, if they strong and they real enough and they go after it…

You married?

Bumpy Knuckles: Nah. …in hip-hop if you a writer then you a writer.

Who do you rate?

Bumpy Knuckles: I like Jean Grae. There’s a couple of people who I like. I used to like Foxy Brown and Lil' Kim.

Obama for president?

Bumpy Knuckles: I think that would be a great look to show people how far America has come. For someone black to be that close to that position in the United States is an incredible accomplishment. People should vote for him based on his abilities. These politicians they do a lot of promising. They tell you what they gonna do, if they get there they gonna do this, you know, then when they get there, a lot of that stuff doesn’t come to pass. George Bush senior did it. But at the same token, it’s a special thing when you see an African American standing in the position that Hilary or Barack Obama is in. I’m proud to be a black man and always have been, and for me to see that is a good thing.

Religion and god?

Bumpy Knuckles: If I didn’t believe in god I wouldn’t be as strong as I am.

So who is god?

Bumpy Knuckles: No-one can say who god is. I don’t know who god is, I never met him. A lot of people have a tendency to follow what they’ve been taught. God is just something that you haven’t seen yet while living on this earth.

You go to church?

Bumpy Knuckles: No I don’t go to church. I used to go to church when I was a kid.

War on Iraq?

Bumpy Knuckles: What do you wanna know?

Do you have friends in the army out there?

Bumpy Knuckles: I have a few friends who are over there. The thing about that is, um, I believe that there are a lot of things that are gonna come out of this that the American people and the people abroad… I don’t know if I can say that we are always told the truth. A lot of people are gonna be exposing inside secrets when they leave their office. There’s no real loyalty there where you can do dirt and then the people you do dirt with separate and write books and all this kind of stuff. It’s like, things are gonna come out about that that are gonna be very unsettling and not just American people, but Europeans and all around the world. They gonna think wow I can’t believe how much money has been stolen because of this war. It’s all about money; it all boils down to that. I mean you paying the kind of money for gas that you’re paying as a result of these types of action. It’s about the little man, the little man is the one who always gets stepped on.

Do you still believe 9-11 was a business deal?

Bumpy Knuckles: Of course. It’s a very bold move to make a run over to Iraq to send out these soldiers to find a man who had nothing to do with 9-11. The man who has something to do with it is supposed to be hiding out somewhere and you can’t even catch him when he’s number one on the FBI’s most wanted list. And you can’t catch him, but you can find another guy. They killed this man’s children and put it on the front page of the papers in America. And he had nothing to do with 9-11. As a taxpaying American, I don’t understand that, so I’m not judgemental on it, I just think they spent a lot of time on catching someone who had nothing to do with, but how much time did they spend on someone who had something to do with it? Our lives have changed over the years because of that. People are living a whole different life now.

Olympic Games?

Bumpy Knuckles: My opinion is, the athletes have always been a part of our lifestyle. If people wanna be an athlete then what’s wrong with that?

At this point I lost the Konexion, which was disappointing as I was just starting to get deep. However, later on he did get back to me with these answers…

What do know about hip-hop outside the USA?

Bumpy Knuckles: I've seen from touring. Ain't much to know about it. It's all over the world. I've been to Germany and Japan and all over Europe in my days of performing, and the effects of it have reached outside the U.S.

What is your message to the world?

Bumpy Knuckles: Be yourself.

Now go to Bumpy’s myspace and download his free mixtape – it’s the sickness.